Info for collectors and enthusiasts of rugs from Afghanistan

Category Archives: Exhibitions

War rug art is fascinatingly educational friends! Temple University’s Samuel L. Paley Library, in room 309, is currently holding a Afghan war rug exhibition that contains 14 of my Afghan war rugs. These rugs tell stories and contain history which, ” helps contextualize a group of people that many Americans know very little about.” Theirs so much to be learned and talked about. Go check it out!

This show has curated by Alicia Cunningham-Bryant and student assistant curators, Ilana Napoli, and Rachel Morin.

“The anonymous weavers of six 1980s and 1990s-era “war rugs” — carpets whose motifs include land mines, guns and soldiers — may have had no formal training, learning from their relatives, but they have incorporated the grim realities of life in a war zone into their traditional craft.”

I talked to Tim and Max about my theory of the “Feedback Loop” specifically regarding this rug:

this group of rugs:

and these Mas’ud rugs:

Max’s guided Tim and me through the galleries. His analysis was animated and very well informed. Succinctly, Max focused on our lack of specific answers to four questions: Who made the rugs? Where were they made? When were they made? What do they mean?

Hozain, who weaves on a loom in her home, is one of dozens of textile artists from around the globe whose work is included in a traveling national exhibit.
…
The common thread among these women of South Africa, Vietnam, Peru and the Middle East is the influence of warfare on their communities, said Lisa Gabbert, a humanities professor at Utah State University and project director. “This exhibit is important because it places women’s voices at the forefront of a public discussion on war,” Gabbert said. “Women’s voices, particularly the voices of poor women from developing countries, are usually left out of such discussions.”

Here are a few links about the exhibition at the Miami University Art Museum.

Some of the rugs in the museum exhibition serve as warnings to people to be aware of unexploded ordinances, illustrating what not to touch. Others contain maps and other images that detail the Soviet occupation, and later, the terrorist attacks against the United States in 2001.

“These rugs are quite mysterious,” he [Kremmer] said. “They haven’t been studied in any great detail, who made them and why, what are the messages. That’s why this exhibit is important.”

The featured exhibition, “Tanks, Helicopters, Guns and Grenades: The Afghan War Rugs,” explores how the changing political landscape of Afghanistan, beginning with the Soviet invasion of 1979, has influenced the rug weavers of the area as they replaced traditional motifs with modern weaponry and warfare.

The result is an art form that resides precariously â€œalongside contemporary and avant-garde art, and political
art and propaganda,â€ Marsh said. This exhibition will showcase approximately 80 war rugs from a private New York collection and offers a rare opportunity to investigate the complex historical, political and social realities of this region.

Warrug.com is proud and honored to lend more than 80 rugs from our collection to the Miami University Art Museum for an exhibition titled, Tanks, Helicopters, Guns and Grenades: The Afghan War Rugs of the 1980s-2007. The wide ranging and thorough exhibition runs through December 15, 2007.